The corn dog crime king

Lurchy the Mastiff worked at the state fair selling cotton candy. He was a friendly and well-loved member of the fair community, known for his big, goofy smile and his love of all things sweet.

But what no one knew was that Lurchy was also a highly trained detective, working undercover to uncover a ring of corn dog thieves who had been plaguing the fair for years.

Every day, Lurchy would watch and listen, observing the goings-on at the fair with a keen eye. He kept his ears open for any hints of suspicious activity, and his nose was always on the lookout for the telltale smell of fried cornmeal and hot dogs.

Finally, one day, Lurchy caught a break. He overheard a group of shady-looking characters talking about their plans to steal a shipment of corn dogs that was due to arrive at the fair the next day.

Lurchy alerted his boss, Captain John “Hard Way” Hardaway, but unfortunately corn dog thieves weren’t at the top of the agency’s list of crimes.

“I know what I heard, and I know those guys are planning to steal a shipment of corn dogs at the biggest corn dog stand at the fair,” Lurchy said.

“Listen, Lurchy,” Hardaway said. “You’re my best man at the state fair. But we have to be right on this. I don’t have the time, money or manpower to waste on chasing corn dog thieves. You could be wrong, Lurchy. Maybe you should just let it go.”

“I can’t let it go. It’s my duty to protect the fair and its visitors. I have to try.”

Hardaway stood up. “But what if you’re wrong? What if you waste all our time and resources, and the thieves get away? You’ll be in big trouble, Lurchy.”

“I can’t worry about that. I have to trust my instincts and do the right thing. It’s going down and I know it.”

“I’ll have your rear end if you’re wrong!” Hardaway yelled.

The next day, Lurchy and his hand-picked team positioned themselves near the biggest corn dog vendor at the fair. He scanned the area with small binoculars. A security guard making his rounds pulled up to the corn dog stand in a golf cart. A group of teen kids walked by laughing and blocked Lurchy’s view for a second. After they passed, Lurchy could see the security guard walk behind the front counter.

“Everybody relax, put all the corn dogs in the back of the golf cart,” the security guard said to the stand owner calmly, holding his gun low by his side. “Do it now.”

“It’s going down!” Lurchy said into his walkie talkie. Get ready to close in.”

The security guard climbed in the golf cart and glided away from the corn dog stand. “Let’s go!” Lurchy yelled and they closed in on the golf cart. The security guard saw them coming and floored the gas pedal.

Lurchy and another agent pulled a maintenance man off his cart and gave chase. They weaved after the corn dog thief through the fairgrounds, dodging cotton candy carts, slicing through towering twin Ferris wheels and just missing the dizzying Tilt-A-Whirl.

The golf cart crashed into the World of Rabbits barn and took off on foot. Lurchy drove up next to him, jumped off the maintenance cart and pulled him down like a cowboy wrangling a loose calf.

“Sit down, Lurchy,” Hardaway said back at the station a few days later. “Listen, you did a great job out there. But there’s something you should know. We grilled that security guard. It turns out he was a stoolie and had been feeding info to us for months. He gave it all up yesterday.”

Hardaway walked around his desk and put his hand on Lurchy’s shoulder. “We know who the leader is. The corn dog crime king.”

“Lurchy, the corn dog crime king is your older brother, Jake.”

“What!” Lurchy yelled, standing up. “Jake?”

“Sit down, Lurchy,” Hardaway said. “Let me take you through the whole thing.”

Lurchy thought back. Jake had always been a bit of a troublemaker, and he had fallen in with a bad crowd during his teenage years. He had gotten involved in petty theft and eventually graduated to bigger and more dangerous crimes.

Lurchy was heartbroken when he discovered that his own brother was the corn dog crime king. He couldn’t believe that Jake had gone down such a dark and dangerous path. But even though Jake was his older brother, Lurchy knew that he had to do the right thing and bring Jake to justice. He couldn’t let his personal feelings get in the way of his duty to protect the fair and its visitors.